Mistral, a Paris-based artificial intelligence company, has closed a funding round worth €3 billion, elevating its valuation beyond €21 billion. This capital injection represents the largest equity financing ever completed by a European technology firm, drawing backing from Samsung Electronics, the Scaleup Europe Fund (overseen by EQT), and returning investor PSG Equity.

The Series D round attracted participation from numerous existing shareholders. Among them are a16z, ASML, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures, alongside new backers including Advent, investment vehicles managed by BlackRock, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Mistral intends to deploy the capital toward strengthening its artificial intelligence research capabilities, scaling up computational resources, and building out its technical infrastructure. The company also plans to use proceeds to accelerate commercial expansion and deepen its presence across global markets.

Since its founding three years ago, Mistral has established operations spanning 20 nations and maintains partnerships with over 125 leading enterprises on AI initiatives. The firm counts Airbus, ASML and HSBC among its client base.

The company framed the investment in the context of shifting priorities within the AI sector. According to Mistral, "During the first wave of generative AI, the central question was who could build the most powerful model. Organisations and governments are now asking a different one: how to harness the power of AI for their mission-critical needs without surrendering control over the infrastructure and intelligence loop."

Mistral added that "Demand for that combination of performance with control, choice and independence is growing internationally, as enterprises and governments weigh the long-term technology dependencies, data governance requirements and deployment choices that come with any AI investment."

This funding announcement follows Mistral's previous Series C round, which was anchored by ASML.

Source: Mobile Europe